CHICAGO — Ryan O’Reilly has played 43 games for the Avalanche this season, and has zero penalty minutes. Pretty amazing when you think about it, for a guy who is around the puck as much as he is.

I asked the NHL today what the all-time record is for most games without any penalty minutes, and they said they don’t keep that particular stat on file. I’m sure someone out there will tell us here, but I wasn’t able to get a definitive word either way on my own research.

Some have snickered that the zero time in the sin bin somehow means O’Reilly isn’t aggressive enough or whatever, so I broached that subject with him today in a locker room at Johnny’s Ice House in Chicago.

“I like that. I definitely don’t ever like going to the box. I think you can be effective in playing the game and still not going to the box,” O’Reilly said. “I’m not very tough. But I’m happy I don’t have a penalty. I think if I can still get my takeaways and still be good defensively and not take any penalties, I think that’s just going to help the team even more.”

For the record, O’Reilly leads the Avalanche in takeaways[1], with 46. The next-closest player is captain Gabe Landeskog with 33. To me, that’s a huge, overlooked stat and one of the many reasons why I think the Avs should sign O’Reilly to a long-term contract extension as fast as they can. O’Reilly’s faceoff-winning percentage, by the way, is 55.1, also tops on the team [1]for players with more than 25 draws. Oh yeah, and he’s tied for the team lead in goals, with 16.

Some wonder if I’m O’Reilly’s agent in disguise, instead of a reporter. Nope, I wish. I just know a top-flight player when I see one. Is he worth $6.5 million a year? That’s possibly a bit inflated, yes. But he’s worth whatever the market will bear, and I’m sure some teams would love to pay him that much money to have him if they had the chance. We’ll see what the Avs think he’s worth, for a second time around.